Volume 54, numéro 1, janvier–mars 1978

EN :

An earnings function is defined for the highly qualified manpower in Canada in 1973. Education, experience and field of study, instead of occupation, are the arguments. By use of regression techniques it is shown that the third independent variable adds significantly to the explanation of the variance of earnings.

Even when years of schooling and experience are accounted for, the contribution of the so-called traditional fields of study—medicine, law, accounting and engineering—remains considerable.

The first of the three interpretations suggested refers to different "innate" abilities associated with choice of a field of study but it is promptly dismissed.

The second interpretation deals with differences in work organization leading to either more uncertain flows of earnings or to longer hours of work. It is shown to be plausible in the case of graduates of law schools but it does not hold in the case of graduates of medical schools.

In the latter case a third interpretation is hinted at: medical doctors, either through their association or individually, do exert some significant influence on both the supply of and the demand for their own services.

EN :

The aim of this study is to throw some new light on the empirical testing of the technological gap theory. The author studies the structure and growth of the exports of nine industrial countries in sixteen manufactured commodity groups during the 1963-1969 period. While it has been customary in the literature to link a country's export shares to the industries' R and D intensity, a distinction is made in this study between the R and D intensity and effort and it is concluded that a country's export structure and growth should be expressed as a function of its R and D relative effort in the different industries. Some empirical evidence of this new relationship is then given in static and dynamic settings.

EN :

The housing conditions in Montreal are mainly characterized by the two following features: firstly, the high percentage of tenants, secondly, the excessively high proportion of French Canadians in that type of tenure.

In spite of this important disequilibrium, there are few systematic analysis of the economic, demographic or cultural factors explaining such a phenomenon.

The following paper is aimed at filling this gap. The first part deals with theoretical considerations; the second part contains the specification of the model, the method of estimation and the statistical data used for the estimation; the third part analyses the results and brings up the main conclusions.

EN :

After facing disappearance during the thirties, under the well known attack by Lionel Robbins and other economists, theoretical welfare economics seems to be more and more in use in spite of still shaky foundations. The concept of surplus, the measurement of preferences and the economic welfare function are apparently among the most promising approaches. Welfarists like Tinbergen and Bergson are not so far now from known anti-welfarists like Robbins and Myrdal. However, the issue of the debate between Pigou and Robbins has to be reconsidered before we can use welfare theory. New methodological arguments are presented that try to separate the shaft from the weed in the thesis of Pigou and Robbins. Some errors are found that have remained alive up to now. After a new light is shed on the controversy, it is fairly easy reconcile Pigou, Robbins, Bergson, Myrdal and Tinbergen. It is fortunate that we can reach such a consensus because the theory of economic policy badly needs renewed foundations to be able to cope with changing values, new patterns of distribution and other long range problems. A fresh start with the questions raised by welfare economics should ease the way towards these goals.